Dr. Arzt

Claus , born in 1967, Germany

It was in 2001, I was in Cuba and drank rum pure for the first time. Until then, I had only ever thought of rum as a mixed drink for cocktails.It was the original Havana Club 7 years, not to be compared with the one you get through Pernod Ricard today. The following evenings I tasted my way through more Cuban rums, some I never heard of before or since. My passion was awakened. 

After the holiday, I started to look further into rum, while my shelf slowly but surely filled up with bottles. Brugal, El Dorado, Mount Gay, Old Monk were the first of what would later become 130 different bottles.

Especially during visits to Barcelona, because the selection was better here than in Germany, I went on regular discovery trips.At the same time as my bottles, the literature on the subject of rum increased. However, apart from the excellent book by Edward Hamilton, from the Ministry of Rum, there was little specialist literature.Through Hamilton, I came across the Ron Barrilito brand, which I eventually also found in Barcelona. To this day, it's one of my favourite rums.

But on the other hand, I also felt a bit bored, there was too little real variety in Rum. Almost everything had 40%, most brands only had 2 - 3 standard bottlings.

Then, at a party, I was known as a rum drinker, I was offered a single malt whisky, which I didn't really want to drink because of my bad youth experience. I hated whisky. What can I say? The malt was great. 

The same thing happened as with rum. I bought a bottle, a second one, a third and suddenly I was buying single malt instead of rum.

So it happened that I sold some of my still closed rum bottles and hardly drank rum for many years. 

Finally, last year, I reawakened my old passion and realise that the rum market has revolutionised.

Back then, there were few overproofs and even fewer independent rum bottlers, but this has changed fundamentally. The variety is much greater and I am once again going on a voyage of discovery in the world of rum.